You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.
Well. With the arrival of the second trailer, it sure feels like people are getting onboard the Superman (2025) train, at least online. I think the slow roll out of images, ideas, etc... is actually working very well.
In my years of observing superhero media releases, there's a distinct pattern when it comes to superhero fans and their management of the conversation online. That conversation can impact what normies see online, which may shape what they may think is the "informed" opinion to have prior to a movie's release - especially in the critical demographic of young adults, who will pay more attention to their peers and what some guy in his mother's house said on TikTok than anything else.
Early on, we spoke about people who think they know more than they do and the challenges of releasing a Superman movie in 2025. And that's an impact, certainly, as there's opinions out there about our guy in the red cape.
Meanwhile, it takes a sort of Zen level of knowing it will ultimately come down to vibes and execution of actual filmmaking more than whether Superman wears his underwear inside or outside his pants.
One may find themselves envying those who come to a superhero movie with no foreknowledge and try to achieve an uncarved block approach to experiencing one of these movies. But, once the algorithms figure out "this guy likes superheroes" on any platform, I tend to see all the takes.
Anyway - patterns.
Initially, there's always an attack on what is perceived as "changes" from some perceived Platonic ideal - an ideal that no one agrees upon.
Casting is usually not too much remarked upon. I think you can normally trust studios to do this right. Though I do remember the confusion when Michael Keaton got Batman.
The real debate always starts at the costume (and each Superman costume can be hotly debated, day or night, on your platform of choice). And, man, no one is EVER happy with the first costume they see. I'm not. I know my fellow Super-friends will nitpick. Look, here's me doing it.
Then we must take on the tone and snips of character depictions in a trailer... But it's always dudes wanting to let you know how smart they are, or how this single Super-image doesn't fit some narrative they've got in their brain. And, in the case of a world where there is a literal cult around the last iteration of a Superman movie, many people who wanted to be angry that this movie existed. Especially when they realized that maybe this movie was not made to suit their particular worldview.
Now, it's also "they shot this with too much color" or "they shot this with not enough color". Or "They used too much CGI" (which, these days, is a bizarre complaint). A favorite of people wanting to just dislike something is "this looks like cheap TV stuff" when you can see that shot you're looking at cost a million dollars. I have no idea where they pull this stuff from.
Then, with the extended trailers, we get the folks doing frame-by-frame breakdowns where they largely make stuff up. But it's a sign of the general enthusiasm and gives some people something to chew on if their anticipation is high and make up a plot and plot points (I tend to think it's pointless to do this, and robs you of future happiness, but whatever).
The good news is, people get used to things, and if you show them something that hits the right emotional buttons, by the time the movie comes out, it's pretty clear who just wants to see a movie and who just wants to complain to hear themselves talk (but will pay for a ticket to have the privilege of complaining).
As I said - I think WB has been handling things better than usual. For example, releasing that image of Superman's suit back in May of 2024 gave everyone a chance to get used to the new suit, which has the trunks - which initially made people lose their damn minds. Now, folks aren't discussing the trunks at all except a few homeboys in their mom's basements.
Then, in the Fall, DC let us know this movie would have a super-powered dog - and managed to not seem embarrassed about it, but instead showed us a scene with vibes enough that people, who would have been horrified by a movie being so unserious as to have a dog in a cape just weeks before, immediately adored and claimed a character they didn't know existed.
And now?
Yes, my algorithm is maybe more tuned to "Superman" than that of others, but folks seem excited for this movie in a way I don't really remember for *any* movie prior to its release since Barbenheimer (aside from a very small niche audience for Godzilla Minus One). And, of course, Sinners blew up into a word-of-mouth hit *after* folks had seen it.
There's folks on YouTube watching/ reacting to Christopher Reeve movies and kind of universally liking them. There's non-comics-movie folks watching.
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| the initial offering from McFarlane |
And, look, I collect Superman, so have I been watching the action figures and whatnot get released? I have. And the interest in the figures seems pretty high, and they bothered to make figures that weren't just for the adult collector market. And they look great!
But who knows?
One thing I will say is that WB has thrown more time, money and effort into advertising this movie than I've seen deployed for a single movie in years and years. They've partnered with more companies to put Superman on products, and make sure Superman is inescapable this year in order that the movie gets at least a chance.
It seems like the lead cast is already doing press more than two months before the movie's premiere. It's absolutely wild. James Gunn is basically doing the social media marketing himself, which is weird. He seems too busy for all that. But he's also squashing rumors and putting out fires before they burst into a blaze.
All that said, in this period of us living in our carefully curated bubbles, it's possible I'm seeing all this but it's not happening elsewhere and people maybe saw one thing once about a movie coming out.
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